Hood Genius-ness

I was forced to revisit what I thought to be my liking of James Baldwin during this summer. In high school when I had to do the meeting of the minds I was taking the task on as another project, but now I think it means more.

James Baldwin was hands down my favorite author on merit alone. He was a gay, black man during the Civil Rights era in America, who then moved to France where he was widely accepted. Not only did he become accepted in France, but acclaimed in America, a country where he couldn't even be proud to be who he was. Amazing. But my point was that I remain amazed at the topics he discusses.

An Ethnic Studies professor introduced a concept James Baldwin mentioned in his book Giovanni's Room that I never caught when I read the book in high school. The concept was that love is such a powerful and uncontrollable emotion, that who would someone be to tell someone else not to feel how they feel just as a human being. That humans never possess the power and never will to stop someone from feeling the way they do. But of course, James Baldwin says this way more eloquently than I have and its too true.

I think as much as people desire the love of someone else and don't accept the love they are handed, why not? Why not take the love you're given, it's irrevocable and unintentional. Most of the time you can't help the way you feel anyways...

With that being said, James Baldwin as well as my Ethnic Studies Professor are examples of hood genius-ness